Dear Friends,

Our perfectionism causes us to procrastinate! That procrastination creates clutter and chaos in our lives. Then we look around at all the mess and the guilt comes crashing down on our heads. Why do we do this to ourselves? We don’t have to live this way! The problem is our perfectionism will not allow us to jump in where we are and just do something. We think we have to have all our ducks in a row and understand everything fully to take the first step toward a peaceful life. After all, Housework done incorrectly still blesses your family.

I have been right where you are now. Many years ago when I first got rid of my clutter and babystepped my way to routines; I was still looking for the magic pill that would keep everything in order. So I asked my friend Sandra, who was born organized how she kept her home clean and ready for company. She told me it was really quite simple! Yeah Right I thought to myself but she was right and I started following what she told me.

She said Marla it is easy, all you have to do is pick up after yourself! If you get it out; you have to put it away. By this time I had eliminated many layers of my clutter and most things in our home had a place. When things have a place, they have to be put back in their place. When we do this we eliminate many hours of searching for things. There is nothing more wasteful of time than searching for something we have lost. Then you add the frustration levels and the guilt; it is a wonder we ever get anything accomplished. Oh we usually don’t! Could this be why we have so many unfinished projects around our homes.

So where do we start. We need to recognize when our old way of perfectionistic thinking is getting in the way of FLYing. When you hear yourself say or think, “I don’t have time!” I want you to turn that around and say I have two minutes. Set your timer and do what you can. Many times you will be surprised at what you did get done in those two minutes.

In the time that it would take you to whine that you don’t have time; you could have done it! Just think about that for a minute. Our life is spent whining that we don’t have time when we just wasted the time we do have. How sad is that! Let’s celebrate instead of feeling guilty that we don’t have time to do it perfectly.

I want to eliminate the guilt from your life because guilt is another form of piling on. We don’t need any more stress in our lives. When we get overwhelmed; we shut down. I am taking my feather duster and absolving you of all guilt. Today is all we have. Do what you can, with what you have, and Do it now!

Are you ready to FLY by being nice to yourself! Do it Now is your gift to you!

FlyLady